Lobos Fall at San Diego State 73-65
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The New Mexico men’s basketball team suffered a 73-65 loss at San Diego State on Tuesday night at Viejas Arena. The Lobos (22-6, 14-3 MW) remain in first place in the Mountain West, while the Aztecs (19-7, 12-5 MW) won their fifth straight home game.
Donovan Dent led the Lobos with 26 points and seven assists. Jovan Milicevic had his conference-high scoring game with 16 points off the bench, including 4-6 shooting from deep.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Aztecs opened the game strong, taking a 10-5 lead over the opening five minutes. The Lobos would take a 16-13 lead with 11:45 left after Milicevic’s second triple of the game before SDSU held a 17-16 lead at the midway point of the half. The Aztecs pushed the advantage to 28-19 with 5:30 left before UNM cut the margin to 28-24 with 2:25 to play. San Diego State held an eight-point lead in the final minute before the Lobos cut the margin in half as the Aztecs led 33-29 at the break.
In the second half, the Aztecs extended the lead to 43-32 over the opening four minutes of play. The Lobos closed the gap to 45-40 with 13:00 left as SDSU led 49-44 at the midway point of the half. San Diego State used an 8-0 run to push the margin to 61-49 with 6:30 left to go. A 6-0 UNM run cut the lead in half with 5:00 to play, but that was as close as the Lobos would get as SDSU retook a 10-point lead with 3:00 to go. The Aztecs would close out the eight-point win over the final minutes.
LOBO NOTES
• The Lobos lost consecutive games for the first time this season
• New Mexico shot 34.4 percent from the floor, its second-lowest percentage of the season
• Donovan Dent had his sixth 25-point game of the season, the most by a Lobo since Jamal Mashburn, Jr. had six in 2021-22
• Dent has 183 assists for the season, T-7th most in a year by a Lobo
• Nelly Junior Joseph had 16 rebounds, his sixth 15-rebound game of the season (third most by a Lobo in the past 50 years)
• Joseph became the 15th Lobo to have a 300-rebound season (301 this season)
QUOTABLE
“They are an elite defensive team. We cut it to four twice and missed a couple of shots to get it closer. Their size and physicality bothered us. It was tough because offensively only Donovan and Jovan were making shots. In the last two games our defense has taken a step back. We have to get back to what got us in this place, 22-6 and 14-3, leading the conference. We have two of the last three at home and we control our own destiny. Tonight was disappointing, but I think we will bounce back.” – Richard Pitino
UP NEXT
New Mexico returns home Saturday to host Air Force for a noon tip-off. Limited tickets remain for the game, as well as the Lobos’ regular season finale vs. UNLV on Mar. 7, and are on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.